Colorado emphasizes tackling during bye week

BOULDER — Knowing that poor tackling has been an issue all season, Colorado has spent considerable time working on tackling during the bye week, CU coach Jon Embree said.

“We have to have more than one guy to the ball, that’s a big part of tackling,” Embree said. “We just have to do more of what we did this week (in practice). We did a lot of tackling. In normal periods where we just ‘thud,’ we went ahead and let the guys tackle.

“The unique thing about football is, sometimes you can’t practice things without actually doing it (at full speed). But then there’s the risk of getting guys hurt (in practice). There’s that fine line, at times. But with us having a bye week, we just threw caution to the wind and let’s go.”

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.